Monthly Archives: January 2011

In recent weeks, several commentators have dwelt upon the amorphous notion of ‘Jinnah’s Pakistan’, challenging its notional contours and exposing its overt ideological underpinnings. Whilst such a debate is healthy in a democratic society, it becomes a worrying sign in a deeply polarised polity such as Pakistan. Jinnah’s Pakistan was no consensus project: It had several dissenters — from the religious right to the Khudai Khidmatgars in the northwest. Perhaps these problematic foundations led to the capture of the state by a national security paradigm, later bolstered by the Islamist discourse.

Blaming Jinnah’s Pakistan as a cause or manifestation of the ideological chaos rooted in our perennial identity question is simply disingenuous. Jinnah may have said different things at different occasions but his views as head of the state are what matter. It was not Jinnah alone who created Pakistan. (more…)

I play with the game of love, I play with my head in the middle of the bazaar,
I am paving the way of the Men of Purity. I play with my head in the middle of the bazaar.

I am racing my horse in the race-ground, you are the one familiar with this secret of mine;
Such a game am I playing. I play with my head in the middle of the bazaar.

From the cup of love, I drank wine. I am dead from my own existence.
I have annuled the telling of my fortune. I play with my head in the middle of the bazaar.

I am so intoxicated with my Beloved that I have emancipated from all and sundry.
Such is the waist-belt that I have fastened. I play with my head in the middle of the bazaar.

I am intoxicated with His intoxication in such a way that I have got rid of this world;
I am so intoxicated in the longing of my Beloved, that I play with my head in the middle of the bazaar.

Courtesy Sohaib Qureshi

As Pakistan enters into another year fraught with fresh challenges and old dilemmas, it is quite clear that its ruling elites – civil and military – are unwilling to learn from history. The crisis of governance in the country has spiraled out of control. We are heading towards grave internal conflict, the possibility of which has been bolstered by serious economic woes in the wake of high inflationary trends. Most importantly, the dilemma of reconciling our national security interest with a possible long-term economic agenda is becoming even more problematic by the day.

Radicalistan? Pakistan’s radicalization is now a threat to its society and the region. Whilst General Zia ul Haq will be remembered for institutionalizing extremism, most Pakistani governments, including democratic and quasi-democratic regimes have in the past, surrendered to the Islamist fringe. From Liaquat Ali Khan’s acquiescence to a terribly vague and confusing Objectives Resolution to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s unforgivable act of declaring Ahmedis as non-Muslims through a constitutional amendment, Pakistan’s long-term interest has always been sacrificed at the altar of short-term expediency and political survival. But the Pakistan of today is not a case of a majority beholden to a virulent minority; it is split from within and fraying at the edges.

Extremism has become embedded in our social fabric?: we are a country in transition. The old is cracking up and the new remains undefined and directionless. Over 65 percent of Pakistan’s exploding population is under the age of 26 and the coming generations will set the future course of the country. However, the portents are disheartening. Nearly 60 percent of youth surveyed in a countrywide poll (organized by British Council Pakistan) had little faith in democracy. Therefore, the glorification of former Governor Punjab Salmaan Taseer Shaheed’s murderer is not an isolated incident. It reflects a combination of societal changes in the broader context of religo-political transformation. At least three factors have greatly contributed to these phenomena.

First, the education system and its overtly pro-jihad bias (whether in madrassas or in state-run schools), has led to the construction of a particular mindset that shuns reason in favor of a theological or a hyper-nationalist discourse. Second, the institutionalization of mullahs and mosques with hefty state patronage backed by the zakat distribution systems ensure that public discourse is controlled and aligned with national security imperatives. Third, the sheer neglect of a social change agenda and absolute disregard for issues of social justice and a citizen voice means that there is an ever-increasing citizenship crisis. A large number of Pakistanis either enjoy partial citizenship rights (Balochistan, many parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and even Karachi for that matter) or none at all (Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Azad Jammu and Kashmir to name a few). (more…)

Raza Rumi remembers the man that was Salmaan Taseer

o these liars and swindlers, these contractors of faith

I am a rebel, I am a rebel

– Habib Jalib

The last time I met Salmaan Taseer Shaheed (STS) was in the Punjab Governor’s House. This was a typical Lahori winter evening: misty and quiet, the palatial colonial mansion making it slightly surreal. A foreign dignitary was visiting; and I was part of the Lahori chatterati assembled in the stately living room that reeked of the Raj. Amid the chatter I took the opportunity to point out the rising tide of extremism in the country, and advised STS to be extra careful about what he said. STS’s response came with his characteristic bravado: “I am not afraid of these Mullahs. Should I stop speaking and stay at home?” He also said: “Being afraid is the worst state of mind.” Within seconds STS had cracked a joke and as always used his irrepressible humour to illustrate just how unafraid he was.

Two weeks later, I was in the same grand room, but in another state of mind: I was shocked and bewildered because STS had been gunned down in broad daylight. My grief since the day of his death has not abated and in fact has turned into a strange despondency: permanent and ominous. In his own words, STS was the “last man standing” against bigotry in a country that is slipping into the hands of extremists who have banned critical thinking and espouse the ideological project designed by the Pakistani state. (more…)

Sohaib Qureshi has translated 12th century mystic Ahmad-i Jam’s verse – thanks to his endeavours

Manzil-i ishq az makàn-i dìgar ast
Mard-i ìn ràh rà nishàn-i dìgar ast

Destination of love is from another dwelling
Man of this path has another attribute.

In the bazaar of those who understand the value of love
There is a different youth under every gallows.

Those slain by the dagger of submission
Each moment find a new life from the Unknown.

O Ahmad! Till you lose yourself, beware
Since this bell is from another caravan.

Salman Taseer’s killing reflects the fight over Pakistan’s soul (OUTLOOK INDIA)
AMIR MIR
When Punjab governor Salman Taseer stepped out of the Table Talk restaurant after having lunch with hotelier Sheikh Waqas and walked to his car parked in Islamabad’s Kohsar Market on January 4, he must have been aware of the possibility of religious fanatics lurking around. Where in Pakistan haven’t the sinister, dark forces of militant Islam penetrated? But what Taseer couldn’t have foreseen perhaps is the precise visage of religious fanaticism—that it could come dressed in the uniform of the Elite Force of the Punjab police, one of those very men who were to protect him from the implacable Islamists forever sniffing around for enemies who don’t subscribe to their worldview.

As Taseer reached his car, a cry of Allah-o-Akbar echoed in the air. The voice was of his bodyguard, Malik Mumtaz Qadri, who then calmly emptied the magazine of his AK-47 into the governor. As Taseer collapsed, Qadri reloaded the rifle and sprayed another 30 bullets. He then placed the rifle on the ground and surrendered before the other eleven bodyguards, nine of whom were from the Elite Force. The remorseless pumping of bullets into Taseer’s lifeless body reflected the depth of Qadri’s hatred. The inaction of other bodyguards speaks of a larger conspiracy, or at the very least a silent, tacit support for Qadri. For the dead Taseer, it could hardly be a recompense to recall what he told the Herald magazine two years ago, “I remember the late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto saying that history is written in the blood of martyrs.” (more…)

Taseer’s brutal murder has exposed every faultline of contemporary Pakistan

The brutal assassination of Governor Punjab, Salmaan Taseer by a staff member of Punjab’s supposedly, professional ‘elite force’, has virtually exposed every fault line of contemporary Pakistan. That a constitutional figurehead of a province with no executive authority or legislative power could be murdered simply for dissenting with the extremist worldview, is shocking to say the least. However, the tragedy has compounded further, much like the dark denouement of a Greek tragedy. The well-organized, ruthless and all-powerful extremist forces have jumped into the fray, and challenged the actuality of a cold-blooded murder. Clerics of all shades and varieties have tried to condone this act of barbarity and reactionary lawyers have promised to defend ‘Ghazi’ Mumtaz Qadri – a self-confessed killer – free of cost. Above all, public opinion has never been shamelessly manipulated in Pakistan as it is being done today by sections of electronic media who have gone out of their way to dilute the immensity of this event, and short of condoning it, have attempted to justify the motives of the criminal Qadri and his followers (which alas, are in the millions across Jinnah’s Pakistan).

Identity Mess

Much has been said about Pakistan’s warped identity, and it is a cliché to say that it is a tottering society in search of an identity. It should be clear to all and sundry now that large numbers of its residents, thanks to state-led indoctrination and a poisonous educational system, have espoused the right-wing interpretation of Pakistan as a theocratic state and that too, of a particular variant of Sunni Islam. This dangerously imagined polity excludes a large number of Muslims who belong to different schools of thought within the plural and complex range of Islamic faith. The minorities in Pakistan have suffered throughout their history, and their invisibility and insecurity is now a given fact of life.

Taseer struggled to raise voice from his public office and challenged the hegemony of Islamicist discourse, which makes this imploding ‘fortress of Islam’ as a repository of a faith-based nuclear bomb, thousands of armed militants ready to die in Jihad and irrationality driving all forms of decision-making – from foreign policy and economy, to municipal issues (such as the regulation of loud speakers in neighborhoods). In effect, Jinnah’s Pakistan is long dead and Zia’s Pakistan lives on in its full glory. (more…)

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You whispered in my ears like early spring:
“I am the call of Love,
can you hear me in the full grasses,
in the scented winds,
it is I who makes the garden smile.”

My pure source of life, helper of lovers in despair,
where have you been so long?
Your breathtaking beauty creates such excitement,
such a stir everywhere
that you leave me bewildered.
From the spring of love you bring back
life to my ailing heart.
The song of the awakened earth, the seasons,
the changing Moons,
all this fuss you make is glorious.
Creation bows at your feet.

– Ghazal (Ode) 12
Rumi: Hidden Music
Translated by Azima Melita Kolin
and Maryam Mafi
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2001

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Islamabad, Jan 5 (PTI) The emergence of Facebook pages eulogising the assassin of Governor Salmaan Taseer and praise from Islamic clerics for the killer have outraged liberal Pakistanis, who today said tolerance and space for discourse on religious and political issues was shrinking.

Taseer was gunned down in an upscale market in the heart of Islamabad yesterday by one of his guards who was angered by the outspoken Governor”s criticism of the blasphemy law.

Chilling footage aired on news channels showed Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, the assassin, saying that the punishment for insulting the Prophet Mohammed was death.

Within hours of the assassination, several disrespectful pages popped up on social networking website Facebook, celebrating Taseer”s death and praising the action of Qadri.

One such page was titled: “Salute to the greatness of Ghazi Malik Mumtaz Qadri”. (more…)

Salman Masood [NATION]

ISLAMABAD // Analysts said yesterday that the assassination of Salman Taseer shows the extent of extremism in a deeply divided society where tolerance is fast vanishing and leaders face mounting risks.

The 66-year-old governor of Punjab, who was a close friend of the president, Asif Ali Zardari, was buried in Lahore yesterday in a funeral attended by thousands of supporters and workers of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). (more…)

Salmaan Taseer’s brutal murder at the hands of a policeman is a cruel reminder of where we have landed ourselves: in a dark morass of irrationality lorded over by pernicious ideologies. Taseer was a representative of the federation in the largest province of Pakistan. Yet, as his death shows, he was very vulnerable to the deep-seated prejudice within the state and society. A target of the reactionaries and of bigots, he became a symbol of resistance against the Talibanisation of Punjab.

A scion of Urdu’s great poet MD Taseer, he was a self-made businessman and a staunch supporter of democracy in the country. He had a long history of struggle against Zia’s dictatorship. After his political hibernation, Taseer emerged as the PPP’s formidable voice of reason. His recent brave act of leading a campaign against the sentencing of Aasia Bibi rallied Pakistan’s moderate Muslims and its intelligentsia who felt emboldened by his courage. Whilst his party dilly-dallied on the issue of revising the blasphemy laws ultimately succumbing to expediency, Taseer remained firm on his position. (more…)

Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer’s brutal murder at the hands of a security personnel is a cruel reminder of where we have landed ourselves: in a dark morass of irrationality lorded over by pernicious ideologies.

He was a brave man and stood for a liberal, tolerant and progressive Pakistan where economic and political freedoms could be upheld. He has paid for his life for his bold stance on the blasphemy law and countering Talibanisation. He was our hope and without him Jinnah’s Pakistan – NOT a theocracy – is in grave danger.

His legacy will be remembered by history and he will go down in history as a major icon of progressivism.

May he rest in peace. PTH mourns his loss and condemns this attack. The federal and provincial government should immediately investigate this murder and punish the criminal as well as the network behind him.

The war against extremism will have continue – otherwise, we are headed towards anarchy, more sectarianism and utter chaos.

Long live Pakistan!

Shabnam Virmani, Director of HAD ANHAD, a documentaty on KABIR.

Thanks to this blog